Medicaid covers nearly one in four residents in Delaware, and 42,600 Delaware Medicaid patients took narcotics in 2011, submitting claims for 212,558 prescriptions. That makes it the most-prescribed class of drugs in the state, and the prescriptions alone cost the program $11 million.
The current plan pays for 200 quick-acting oxycodone pills per month without extra documentation from a prescribing physician. The new policy goes into effect Mar. 1, and requires state authorization for more than 60 30-milligram tablets of immediate release oxycodone or 240 15-milligram oxycodone pills per year.
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